There are lots of love poured for Dungeon and Dragons, the most famous and basic tabletop role-playing game. Moreover the love for this game is so real, many game developers are creating their game inspired or even using D&D as their game foundation. The latter is used in HeartBit Interactive game series, Doom and Destiny.

After released their first series in 2013, the Italian company, HeartBit Interactive, released the game that they claim as a sequel, prequel, and also a reboot from their first game, Doom and Destiny Advanced

Doom and Destiny Advanced: The Premise

First of all, this is my first time playing HeartBit Interactive's game. Never played anything from them before, so this review would be taken from my perspective as a first timer. However, just from the name of the game, anyone I believe can guarantee the love that HeartBit Interactive had for Dungeon and Dragons. Even the story of Doom and Destiny Advanced is using D&D as their core.

The story in Doom and Destiny Advanced is started with a flashback situation. Four nerds (one guy with eyeglasses makes the whole party as a nerd group) are facing a fiery room situation. No one would be telling you what happened, all the NPC will only tell you how to control your team, the rest is left to your assumption.

As the story goes, it turns out that it's just a situation that you'll soon face, and that's including something surprising that I don't want to spoil and ruin all the fund you might had. I'm not here to spoil you anything, but I assure you that Doom and Destiny Advanced has a great story. Make sure you notice how the flow goes as you play with the game.

Doom and Destiny Advanced: The Gameplay

You can't just use Dungeon and Dragons as the basis of your story but left out RPG as the genre, something just doesn't feel right. Luckily, Doom and Destiny Advanced is using RPG and using it righteously.

There are four and only these four characters (the nerds group) that will be available to play in Doom and Destiny Advanced. Although there will only be these four nerds available as your team, you will be able to change the class of each nerd when you find the urn and spirit of that particular class.

There are four classes per nerd, so that means there 16 classes available to be played, and that's including sorcerer, black knight, and more. For each class, you can also find some treasure chest to unlock cosplay suit. There are three available suits for each class, that means you have a lot to do.

Each character has unique ability that's attached in their own, and I'm not talking about skills like Fireball for Mage class or Multishot for Ranger class. I'm talking about specific non-battle ability like moving rock because you have a Knight class activated in your team. Or you can walking in thorn skilfully because you have Ranger class activated. These abilities are specific for each class and have to be activated in your team if you want to use it.

Doom and Destiny Advanced is a 'free-to-roam' game where you will walk by your own and be greeted with various monsters and enemies (skulls included). Because it is an exploration game at the same time, you will also encounter some secret rooms available to unlock. Even if these secret rooms can be found easily with Rogue's ability, you still have to search the room around, to look for the key to open the door.

The battle works just like most JRPG games. Turn order displayed at the top of the screen, and when your turn arrive, you just choose whatever you want in the menu. One particular thing that distinct Doom and Destiny Advanced from other similar game is the use of food, alchemist, and parts. These three will act as consumable items, but not just ordinary consumable items, you can even use these items to deal a pretty good damage.

The enemies also built with a mid turn reaction, they can do counter attack and sometimes they do revenge because their friend is being hurt. They will always attack nerd character that doing the most dangerous skill in that turn.

Doom and Destiny Advanced: The Control

Unlike many RPGs, Doom and Destiny Advanced is using a rather smart move for me. Instead using two buttons, Doom and Destiny Advanced only uses one virtual button, that is to control all the movement as well as navigating all the menu. So you can literally play this game with just one hand, perhaps with driving or eating, or perhaps taking a shower?

Swipe down and up to navigate the menu, press or swipe right to confirm, and swipe left to cancel or go to previous menu. Hold down the button to access the menu or let AI to control your characters movement. Perhaps there might be a swipe mistake in the process, but well, who doesn't love an RPG that can be played with just one hand?

Things I Like

I love how HeartBit Interactive creates the story for Doom and Destiny Advanced. Teasing with a future situation, then runs it back backward only and lets the gamer to realise that you just can't, well let me stop before I spoil all the story. I really like how the story goes, and with 10-16 hours of adventure, that's quite some time you can enjoy.

Party Customisation also works really well in my opinion. With just four characters in your team, it's inevitable that player might get boring. However, enabling these four to change classes and even customise their suit is really a well planned strategy.

And my last love is for the off-battle ability. By having a unique ability for each class, you will want to return to the place you've visited before just because you haven't opened up the treasure chest.

Conclusion

I haven't played the previous game before, but judging from Doom and Destiny Advanced alone, I still feel really good playing this game even if I haven't played the previous game before. It has a really satisfying core game, funny story and smart design inside the game. Ottimo lavoro, ragazzi!

About HeartBit Interactive

HeartBit Interactive is an Italian based company owned by Matteo Nicolotti and Francesco Ficarelli. Before, it was two company until both of them decide to merge and choose name HeartBit because Francesco said that HeartBit was cool ’cause it had a Heart in it… Made with bits' :)